Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra invoked a special security law after protesters stormed key ministries in a bid to topple the government.  The Internal Security Act enables officials to impose curfews and seal roads in and around the tense capital Bangkok.

Giant rallies against the populist Shinatrawa and her brother whose premiership ended in a coup in 2006 grew over the weekend.  But on Monday, crowds rushed the police headquarters and TV stations, and forced their way into the finance ministry as well as the government's public relations department.

Much of the strife is centered on repeated attempts to pass amnesty legislation which would allow ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – the brother of the current PM – to return to Thailand without serving a jail sentence for corruption.  The conservative opposition Democrats are against the Shinawatras and their overwhelming parliamentary majority.

“It is necessary for the government to enforce the law,” said the Prime Minister, “But I would like to insist that the government will strictly not use any violence against people.”

She was referring to the protests of 2010, when thousands of red shirted pro-Thaksin demonstrators occupied the streets of Bangkok, only to fall to a military crackdown in which 90 civilians died.